John Mitchell
John Mitchell (commonly known only as Mitchell) was a vampire. Mitchell lived in Bristol working as a hospital orderly. Like a recovering addict, he does not want to kill and seems to hate his condition, struggling to control his lust for blood. Mitchell aspires to live a normal human life and disassociate himself from the vampire community with varying degrees of success. Biography Irish by birth, he was originally bitten during the First World War by Herrick when he stumbled upon him and several other vampires who were picking through piles of bodies for anyone living to feed on. Mitchell agrees to become a vampire in exchange for Herrick leaving the rest of his men alone. While his conversion to vampirism came from altruistic motives, he goes on to become immersed in a vicious lifestyle of murder and debauchery, cultivating a legendary status among vampires. It is in the 1960s that Mitchell begins to resist his nature. Herrick gives Mitchell the opportunity to kill a young girl that they have lured into their car. Mitchell shows guilt and anger at the easiness of the kill and lets her go. He tells Herrick that she escaped, prompting the suspicious Herrick to say he will keep a closer eye on Mitchell.BBC Being Human: Prequels Archives Blog http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/beinghuman/prequels/. In 1969 Mitchell takes a young woman named Josie hostage following he and Herrick's murder of two women in a neighbouring flat. After fearlessly confronting him about his lack of desire to kill, he spares her life. Josie would subsequently help Mitchell go clean for a while and the two dated for a time. While it is suggested she is the only woman he ever truly loved, his immortality doomed their relationship and they part sometime afterward. In his early years as a vampire, Mitchell was quite a hero among those that knew him. Stories of his exploits are still spoken of among the vampire clan in Britain. These seem to be a cause of great guilt for Mitchell who asks Herrick in "Episode 1.5" to stop their retelling, preferring for himself to be forgotten. It is revealed in Episode 2.8 that Mitchell is 116 years old, and like all vampires is immortal unless killed. Although he can survive daylight, his eyes are overly-sensitive to natural light, prompting him often to wear sunglasses outside in the daytime. Mitchell has attempted several times to abstain from drinking blood (one attempt was a New Year resolution for 2000, with the aid of a fellow vampire called Carl). At this time, Mitchell showed an extreme addiction to blood, as well as heightened aggression, lack of control and extreme panic due to blood withdrawal. Mitchell's personality is laid-back and exceedingly cool, with an easy sense of humour and striking good looks he effortlessly charms people, though the menacing violence of his vampirism is never far under the surface. He favours a 'rock n roll' style, dressing in hip clothes like leather, jackets with upturned collars and skinny jeans and nearly always wears cut-off gloves as vampires are always cold. Despite his appearance, his age has lent to him a fatherly quality that he displays in his friendship with George and Annie and is apparent in his taste for the classic films, comedy and music of his 'youth.' Events of the Series Mitchell befriended the werewolf George after saving him from a trio of vampires who beat him up. He looks out for George, particularly around the full moon and they moved into a rented house together in an effort to live more like ordinary people. They soon realized it was haunted by Annie who Mitchell recognized as a ghost and 'kindred spirit.' The trio bond over their shared condition as outcasts, neither fitting into a supernatural or a human world. Infuriated with himself after 'converting' fellow hospital employee Lauren into a vampire (as covered in both the pilot episode and Episode 1.1), Mitchell decided to give up the blood and attempts 'Being Human' once more. At several points, he faced a conflict of emotions as he decides whether to 'convert' people around him to prevent their deaths. After converting the child of a neighbour for this reason, Mitchell becomes convinced that vampirism can be a force for good and agrees to rejoin the vampire clan, and its leader Herrick's shadowy plans for their exposure to the world. It is in this time he re-encounters Josie who is terminally ill. When the sinister plans of Herrick are revealed, Mitchell rebels and is mortally wounded but saved again by Josie who gives him her rejuvenating blood. In series 2, Mitchell has become the new "king" of the vampire clan in Bristol, hiding evidence of their feedings, rebuilding their human front and intending to wean them off blood, although his activities are hampered by their bloodlust. He recruits his vampire friend Ivan to be a role-model for abstention but being unable to completely forsake blood after so long, Mitchell allows him to feed in secret. He thus faces a spiralling series of 'compromises' to his values in taking up responsibility for the other vampires. Beginning a new relationship with a human doctor, Lucy, Mitchell decides to relinquish command to Ivan. However after the deaths of the vampire clan by an explosion at the funeral parlour, and subsequently discovering that they have been betrayed by Lucy, Mitchell realises that he has wasted his time trying to hide his bloodlust and goes on a frenzy with Daisy, newly-widowed from Ivan. After brutally killing the coroner Quinn, Daisy and Mitchell attack and kill a train carriage full of people in an arbitrary retaliation against humankind. Crazed with blood, Mitchell pays a last visit to George and Annie at the house, warning George to stay away from cities in the future, indicating plans for the unleashing of a vampire-led genocide on the world. While searching for Lucy he has a confrontation with a priest, Kemp, who reminds him that George saw him as a good man worth saving when he was injured and inadvertently reveals Lucy's connection to the organisation that seeks to 'cure' George, Nina and Annie. Finding the organisation's headquarters, Mitchell kills most of its members and confronts Lucy, countering her claims that he and his kind are evil with the theological argument that God made them just as he made mankind and by pointing out that she killed despite having a choice, but he does not kill her. Enraged that Kemp cast Annie into the afterlife, he nearly kills him but stops when George demands that he not do so in Annie's name. After the events at the 'Facility' he leaves Bristol with George and Nina to live in a cottage in the countryside and 'lay low.' He later shows mercy to Lucy when she shows up at the cottage looking for forgiveness and grief when she is then killed by Kemp. When Mitchell enters Purgatory to rescue Annie - following a terminally ill patient at the hospital where George and Nina now work through the Door after his demise -, he learns that the time and date of his death has been confirmed, and he will be killed by a werewolf at some unspecified- but apparently not-too-distant- future date, although he later comments to Annie that he doesn't believe a word of what he heard. Although haunted by both the 'prophecy' of his death and the continued police hunt for the person responsible for the 'Box Tunnel Twenty' massacre, Mitchell rejected an offer to depart Britain to live with the vampire 'Old Ones', commenting during a talk with permanently teenage vampire Adam that his friends help him remain clean as their goodness inspires him by forcing him to think about the disappointment they would feel if he succumbed to his thirst. After a confrontation with vampire 'fan' Graham, Mitchell tried to tell Annie the truth about the tunnel massacre, but Annie simply told him that whatever he had to tell her didn't matter, assuring him that all she wanted was the man he was now and that what he'd done in the past didn't matter compared to what he'd done for her and George, the two subsequently kissing. Although Annie tries to find ways for their relationship to become physical at first, Mitchell admits that he actually prefers their current bond, as sex has always been about violence rather than love with him, and he prefers for his relationship with Annie to be 'pure' and apart from that. Despite some tension with werewolf vampire-hunter MacNair due to Mitchell's concerns regarding the 'prophecy' of his death- although he claims to Annie that he doesn't believe in fate-, Mitchell and MacNair reached a certain understanding when they worked together to save George and Nina from a group of vampires, although MacNair still feels that Mitchell's sins will catch up to him eventually. When Herrick returns to life, Mitchell initially attempts to stake him- particularly after Cara stakes herself before she can tell Mitchell how she and Daisy brought Herrick back-, but is convinced by George to let Herrick live on the grounds that he deserves the same chances everyone has given Mitchell. When Annie learns about Mitchell's role in the massacre, she tearfully convinced him to allow himself to be arrested, Mitchell going along with it to prove his love for her even as he tries to escape being processed due to the risks if his true nature is exposed. Although Herrick released Mitchell- revealing in the process that his resurrection was aided by the fact that he was torn apart rather than just being staked-, Mitchell finally staked Herrick when he concluded that he had seen and done enough in his life. With the news that another man had been framed for the Box Tunnel Twenty he returned to the house to ask George to kill him, recognising that whoever had set up that frame would want a favour later and wanting to free his friends of the taint he had brought to their lives. He is killed by George in an act of mercy. Abilities Like other vampires, Mitchell has enhanced strength and smell but is apparently susceptible to normal pain ie. when punched or kicked in the shins. Though it appears that he is slightly weaker when he abstains from drinking blood, he can survive without it. His eyes turn completely black when he has blood-lust or when he wills it. He is not reflected in anything "silver-backed", making him invisible in mirrors and on camera, but is reflected in transparent surfaces such as windows. Mitchell is also immortal unless killed by staking, loss of blood or decapitation. Although he can survive daylight, his eyes are overly-sensitive to natural light, prompting him to wear sunglasses whenever outside in the daytime. References Category:Vampires Category:Supernatural Beings Category:BBC Characters Category:Males